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Hercules, CA — Sept. 2, 2010 — Bio-Rad Laboratories announced the launch of the Gel Doc EZ, a compact gel documentation system that provides publication-quality images and analysis in seconds — with just the push of a button.

Users of the system include researchers who perform DNA, RNA, and protein electrophoresis as well as western blotting.

“Market surveys indicate that gel imaging users’ greatest frustration is the level of difficulty associated with using the systems that are currently available,” said Ryan Short, Marketing Manager for Imaging Systems at Bio-Rad Laboratories. “The traditional response from providers has been to develop systems with more specifications rather than to consider what’s really important to customers, which is ease of use. With the Gel Doc EZ imaging system, we’ve made imaging easy without sacrificing quality or accuracy.”

The Gel Doc EZ imager requires no training for first-time users and provides automated push-button functionality. This eliminates the need for researchers to manually manipulate filters, lenses, or lighting, thereby minimizing the potential for human error.

In addition, the new system may be expanded to meet a variety of imaging applications. The imager allows the use of multiple application-specific trays, including a UV tray for imaging fluorescent stains such as ethidium bromide, a white tray for imaging colorimetric stains such as Coomassie blue, a blue tray for imaging SYBR® Green- stained DNA, and a stain-free tray for imaging proteins separated by electrophoresis on Bio-Rad’s Criterion® TGX Stain-Free™ precast gels. The Gel Doc EZ imager is the only gel documentation system capable of imaging stain-free gels, an advanced gel technology that condenses traditionally long staining protocols down to a five-minute activation and imaging process.

Researchers performing SDS-PAGE and staining with Coomassie blue can spend more than two hours after electrophoresis to get properly stained protein bands. Most staining protocols include multiple manual stain and wash steps. Stain-free technology eliminates this bottleneck and allows scientists to generate results faster.

The Gel Doc EZ imager’s compact size frees up benchspace. The entire system is 27 cm wide by 38 cm high (10.6 by 15 in.), about a third of the size of the Gel Doc XR+ system.